All-night Karaoke, Yokohama and Harajuku...

I am currently on my Autumn break from uni, so I have been relaxing, going places and have, unfortunately, had to say bye to some great people I have met this semester. We said goodbye and celebrated the end of the first semester by doing all night karaoke. About 20 of us went and it was a great night!

And Quan got me a box of Kōn Furosutei (Frosties) before leaving, which was a bit of a treat!

Last week my friend Ikuya invited me and a few others to his hometown, Yokohama, about ¥600-700 and 30km south of Tokyo. We arrived in Yokohama at around midday, spent about 30 minutes working out how to get out of the station, met Ikuya and went back to his house for lunch. We had 'nabe', made by Ikuya, which was great! We also made some 'dango', a kind of Japanese dessert, which was messy but tasted good in the end!

After lunch, we went to Chinatown in Yokohama. Tom missed the crossing so we waited for him. I had to take this photo as he (at around 6'5"ish) towered above the Japanese women!

Anyway, Chinatown....

 The gate with the lovely traffic lights in front of it.

RAAAAWR!

Another gate.

Santakurōsu (Santa Claus)!

After Chinatown, we went to the bay which was good.

Big ship!

 Yokohama

Not just your regular Lawson, this is a Happy Lawson! I went inside. It was no happier than a normal Lawson. Disappointing.

 

A domey thing outside Happy Lawson.

Me trying to be artistic:

The other day we took another trip to the Meiji shrine in Harajuku. As I had already been before, I didn't take that many photos, but here are a few from the day anyway:

First off, this is the sneaky little man who stole the seat on the train that I was clearly about to sit down in! He pretty much ran to the seat as he saw me move towards it! If he hadn't been all sneaky about it, I would have offered the seat to him. But the fact that he was being an idiot about it annoyed me for the whole journey! Stupid man! Grrrr!

As you look at these photos, bear in mind that it was the 23rd November, i.e. Autumn/Winter. It was such a nice day!

There were lots of boats full of vegetables, which I assume is for some kind of harvest festival.

Traditional wedding ceremony:

The groom was loving it!

It was sunny. 

Jo, myself, Becka, Tessa and Ikuya at the Meiji shrine.

 In the evening we went to an izakaya, where everything was ¥294 (about £2.20). Even this beer, which was in, I reckon, a litre glass, of which about 3 quarters was non-heady beer! So cheap for Japan! It was a good night.

I think that's it for this entry. Thanks very much for trawling through it!